Disturbing, alarming, and eerily funny, Assassins is perhaps one of the most controversial musicals ever written. Stephen Sondheim, the great genius of contemporary musical theater with stand-out shows such as Sweeney Todd, Into the Woods, and Company, leads audiences on a tuneful review of Presidential assassins and would-be killers from John Wilkes Booth to John Hinckley. Thought provoking and darkly delightful, Assassins won five Tony Awards in its first revival on Broadway.
Those of us who lived through the assassination of President Kennedy as well as the attempts on the lives of Ronald Reagan and Gerald Ford, certainly remember the flurry of news broadcasts on the events as well as the overwhelming sorrow brought about when a President dies unexpectedly at the hands of an assassin.
The brilliance of Assassins occurs as it takes us inside the minds of these confused people, giving us more understanding about their misguided thinking that caused these world-changing events to happen. And even better, we get to laugh at them!
We are led along through their stories by the Proprietor (Cole Cuomo) of what appears to be a brick-walled examination room in hell complete with a jury ensemble that often holds up Presidential photos for target practice. With just ten songs in the entire musical, we learn of their crimes and confusion through each actor’s remarkable ability to bring these tortured souls thoroughly to life onstage.
But first off, the Proprietor sings about each of their guns with loving respect, calling on each of the assassins to claim their weapon of choice. It is chilling and comical at the same time and sets the mood for the entire tongue-in-creek production.
The assassins are portrayed by Claire Adams (as Lynette “Squeaky” Fromme, the Charles Manson follower who attempted to assassinate President Ford in 1975), Jeff Alan-Lee (as Charles Guiteau who shot President Garfield in 1881, causing his death from infection to the wound), Sean Benedict (as a chilling Lee Harvey Oswald, the suspected assassin of President Kennedy), Janna Cardia (as everyday housewife Sara Jane Moore who also attempted to assassinate President Ford in 1975 just 17 days after Fromme), David Gallic (as Samuel Byck who hijacked airplanes and killed a police officer and several pilots in his failed attempt to assassinate President Nixon), Adam Hunter Howard (as Leon Czolgosz, a disgruntled factory worker who shot President McKinley in 1881, causing his death eight days later due to infection), Jason Peter Kennedy (as Giuseppe Zangara who attempted to shoot President Franklin Delano Roosevelt in 1933 as he gave an impromptu speech from the back of an open car), Zachary Lutsky (as John Hinckley, Jr. who attempted to assassinate President Reagan in 1981 as the culmination of his effort to impress actress Jodie Foster), and Travis Rhett Wilson (as John Wilkes Booth, the vain stage actor who assassinated President Lincoln in 1865 to “save the nation” and is reverently worshipped by the others as founder of the “Presidential Assassins Club.”)
The triple-threat supporting ensemble includes Dominic DeArmey, Sandy Mansson, Nick Tubbs, Bryan Vickery, Selah Victor (who remarkably transforms into Emma Goldman in front of our eyes), and Paul Wong.
And special kudos to costume designer Stephanie Beth Petagno, set designer Alex Kolmanovsky, lighting designer Will Adashek, and sound designer Philip G. Allen for lifting the production to the highest artistic standards.
Don’t miss your chance to learn a bit of history and laugh at society’s foibles taken to extreme by nine self-described misfits in Red Blanket Productions (in association with Punk Monkey Productions) presentation of the multi-Tony Award-winning musical ASSASSINS with music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim, book by John Weidman based on an idea by Charles Gilbert, Jr., engagingly directed by Dan Fishbach (currently a professor at The USC School of Dramatic Arts), with music direction by Anthony Lucca (who leads four talented musicians offstage), and lots of intricate small stage choreography by Lili Fuller.
Due to its subject matter, this material is appropriate for ages 15 and older. The show runs through Sept. 27 playing Fridays and Saturdays at 8 p.m.; Sundays at 2 p.m. at The Pico Playhouse, 10508 W. Pico Blvd., Los Angeles. Tickets are $30. For tickets and information, visit www.assassinsmusicalLA.com.
